Today, August 8th, 2018, on the birthday of Mexican revolutionary General Emiliano Zapata, members of the General Assembly of Peoples, Neighborhoods, Communities and Pedregales of Coyoacan blockaded the two entrances to the real estate development project at Aztecas 215 in the south of Mexico City. For around three hours in the afternoon, the entrances were barricaded off, disallowing the movement of traffic and construction materials in and out of the construction site. At least three trucks full of construction material arrived, but were not permitted to enter. Waiting around a couple hours, the trucks eventually left without delivering the material to the construction site.

Today’s blockade marks the ongoing resistance and neighborhood self-organization against the real estate development project being built on top of a fresh-water aquifer in a city and neighborhood starved of water. The encampment in front of the real-estate development project is coming up upon its one-year anniversary on August 31st, after the prior encampment was evicted on December 5th, 2016. The neighborhood assembly is actively organizing against the real estate company, Quiero Casa, in its development project of 377 apartments and 683 parking stalls in the pedregales of Coyoacan in the south of Mexico City. This is both a project of ecocide, but also a project of ruthless gentrification, in a working-class neighborhood with a long history of community organization and resistance.

Stay tuned, as the fight against the real estate project at Aztecas #215 continues!